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Sunday, March 13, 2016

Eeek! Clothing Moths (and my desperate attempts to eradicate them)

I have to admit that I haven't been as observant lately as I should have, but when a number of moths started flying about our house, I went on full alert. Because, even though I live in Florida, I am a wool junkie. I love working with wool and wool yarns and always have several projects in different stages of completion.

Of course, when I pulled out my yarns and semi finished projects they had obvious moth damage. Some things were salvageable, but (because moths love dark, undisturbed places) the yarn and wool at the bottoms of my project bags were destroyed.

The first thing I noticed were the clothing moth cocoons. On yarn that only had cocoons, but no damage, I vacuumed the yarn balls inside and out with my vacuum attachment.

Then I placed any salvageable wool into 2 1/2 gallon zip lock bags and placed them in my freezer for, at least, 72 hours.

After I removed the bags from the freezer I open the bags while they came to room temperature, to prevent condensation. Make sure that there is no moisture in the bags before you reseal them.

From now on I will be storing my wool in plastic even though I know that this is not the optimal method of storage. I will also be more diligent about checking through my supplies on a regular basis.

I managed to salvage about 50% of my wool. I knew better than to take my wool storage for granted, but sometimes life distracts us and we end up paying for it.

I decided many years ago that I didn't want to own anything that, if it became damaged or ruined, would be heart breaking for me. We live in hurricane territory and I don't want to worry about things when all my concentration should be on my family. So the loss of a few projects is disappointing, but not devastating.

About Me

For most of my adult life (60 years) I have consciously lived a simple, frugal life. This was a lifestyle choice for me, but with today's poor economy, it has become a life necessity. I hope to share my frugal philosophy with others, hopefully helping them and learning a few tips for my own use.
Now for a bit of personal information. I am a Mennonite, mother of an seventeen year old girl and wife of 37 years. I spend my time running my household the old fashioned way, cooking from scratch, canning our food, gardening, sewing, knitting, spinning (not on a bike), cleaning, writing book reviews and worshipping.